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Pound County
Pound County is the smallest county in Idahohiowa, which, according to the 2010 Census, has a total area of only 14.33 square miles and a population of 1,307. Organized in 1863 as a response to the Von Trier Declaration, Pound County is the site of the only Civil War battle to be fought in Idahohiowa Territory, The Battle for Blightsboro (also known locally as Buddoles' Raid), a twenty minute assault on a territorial militia garrison in Blightsboro. The county seat is Blightsboro and the economy is largely based on small-batch artisanal cheeses and goat herding. History Pound County is almost entirely composed of what was once a vast goat ranch homesteaded by early pioneer-turned-politician, Sir Gabe N. Buddoles I. Born in the colonies to Loyalist parents, Buddoles had just inherited his father's plantation in Georgia Colony when the American Revolutionary War officially ended in 1783. While many of his fellow Torries moved their plantations to the West Indies, Buddoles chose instead to free his slaves, sell the family landholdings, gather a group of fifty family members, friends and disciples and strike west for Louisiana Territory. After traveling for nearly a year, being turned away by French settlements, forts and trading outposts, the Buddoles party finally found an uninhabited patch of arid, rocky soil that they claimed for themselves. Years of failed crops and starvation lead the survivors to name their homestead Blight, and they focused on raising goats as a practical way to create food and income. Gradually, as the United States creeped ever westward, more settlers came to live near or on the Blight Ranch, prompting Sir Buddoles' grandson, Icabod Hart Buddoles, to grant much of the ranch to the founding and incorporation of the town of Blightsboro. I. Hart Buddoles personally oversaw the drafting and building of the Blightsboro Town Hall. Pound County was officially organized on August 7th, 1863, two days after Territorial Governor Ibrahim von Trier's infamous declaration of "sympathiam sine secessionem" (literally, "sympathy without succession") midway through the Civil War. Gabe N. Buddoles III (April 15,1836-August 9, 1895), a local landowner, great-grandson of Sir Buddoles, and Commander of the 7th Idahohiowan Volunteers (known colloquially as "Buddoles' Brigade") and craft goat cheese pioneer, gave an impassioned speech to an audience gathered at the Blightsboro Town Hall decrying the declaration and urging the populace of Blightsboro and surrounding communities to organize their own political entity. The next evening, articles of organization were drawn up, making Buddoles the first acting Commissioner of Pound County. On the very night of his impromtu inauguration, Buddoles III, led his regiment of green volunteers to the sack of Fort Gangrene, a state militia outpost on the edge of Blightsboro. As Buddoles' Brigade was officially sworn to the Union's Army of the Mississippi and the Von Trier Declaration had sworn "all standing State Militias, Garrisons and Fishing Vessels to the swift aid of the Army of the Confederate States of America," this brief battle is considered by scholars to be the only Civil War battle to have taken place in Idahohiowa. The battle was immortalized by Idahohiowan painter Geoff van Turdyk's seminal "Buddoles' Raid." Demographics Politics Economy Towns Education